‘We feel so much for young girl in Sheffield sex attack’

THIS is the sex attacker who ambushed a schoolgirl as she walked home - a floppy-haired young man who spent his spare time painting miniature models in his bedroom.

Jordan Padley, aged 22, dragged his 14-year-old victim from a path and shoved his hand over her mouth to stifle her screams before forcing her to the ground.

Sparking a year-long manhunt, he left girls and women terrified to go out in Sheffield alone. A judge said his attack was ‘every woman’s and girl’s nightmare scenario’.

But his father David said his son spent his free time building and painting tiny models for Warhammer, a fantasy miniature war game.

And he said his son - who has been assaulted in his jail cell by a fellow inmate - is not coping behind bars at Doncaster Prison.

David Padley, 50, of Keats Road, Fox Hill, said: “I can’t begin to tell you how devastated our family feels at all this, and if we could do anything to change what happened to the young girl and her family we would.

“We all feel so much for the young girl and her family.”

Padley, a former Yewlands School pupil, is serving eight years in Doncaster Prison after admitting two counts of sexual assault and one of inciting sexual activity with a child.

“Some people can handle themselves and take to prison life, but Jordan isn’t one of them,” his father said.

“He has never been in a fight before.

“Every day there are threats and it’s only a matter of time before someone else gets him.”

Padley will spend half of his eight-year prison sentence behind bars before being released on licence, and will be monitored by the authorities for another six years. He has been banned from working with children for life.

His father, a dad-of-four, said his son is ‘devastated and ashamed’ by his crime - which he claims was ‘five minutes of madness’ triggered by the drug LSD.

“He had never used drugs before, he is against them,” said Mr Padley.

“But somebody gave him LSD that day and we are looking into getting him prosecuted for his part in this. He has ruined his life with five minutes of madness.”